


Behind Every Great Woman

by tielan



Series: Unfinished Symphonies [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:35:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27953210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: Pepper Potts is missing. Maria Hill is on the case.
Series: Unfinished Symphonies [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2047115
Comments: 3
Kudos: 24





	Behind Every Great Woman

**Author's Note:**

> This is an unfinished and abandoned work. One of many stories that were started but never finished for want of time, inspiration, or effort.
> 
> I apologise for any and all cliffhangers, but hope that you enjoy the snippets as they stand.

Natasha trusts Maria Hill has a good reason for being crouched over what looks like a SHIELD hacking interface in the foyer of the Quinjet hangar of the Tower.

“JARVIS is down,” says Maria without looking up. Natasha has little doubt that Maria checked who was on the incoming Quinjet before she let herself get caught hacking into Tony Stark’s AI.

“You could have called Stark.”

“I called Potts. She’s not answering. And since I came to the Tower for a scheduled meeting with her and found JARVIS down, I decided that suspicious and paranoid was a safer option. And, we should have reboot in three, two, one...”

“ _JARVIS system, version 8.1.246, initializing all systems. All nodes are switched. Contacting…_ ” The AI paused. “ _Contacting…_ ”

“Lieutenant Maria Hill, Agent of SHIELD, initiating ‘Mandalay’ protocol.”

“ _Good morning, Lieutenant Hill._ ”

Natasha’s brows rise. It’s just past noon, and JARVIS should have picked this up. That he hasn’t suggests…

“ _I seem to be lacking records for a significant portion of time in the Tower_.”

“Time lapse?”

“ _The lapse in recording occurs from 0313 to 1157 today_.”

“Nine hours,” Natasha says. “And no-one noticed.”

“With Stark away, who would? The Avengers Tower AI syncs at midday and midnight unless Stark is using the Iron Man suit on-planet or one of the Avengers schedules a sync for data matching purposes.” Maria closes up the interface as she rises and heads through the plate glass doors leading in to the elevator lobby.

“And Stark is working on the moon base.” Natasha’s eyes narrow as she follows Maria to the elevator and steps in. “JARVIS, current location of all personnel in the Avengers’ quarters of the tower, excluding Lieutenant Hill and myself.”

“ _Prince Thor and Lady Sif are out on Prince Thor’s balcony. There are no other personnel in the Avengers’ section of the Tower._ ”

“Current location of Pepper Potts?”

A pause, rather long. “ _I have no indications of Ms. Potts’ current location, although her schedule indicates a midday meeting with Lieutenant Hill in the public lounge._ ”

And Pepper always leaves a message if she’s going to be late, even if it’s only by five minutes. Natasha meets Maria’s gaze as the other woman asks, “Last records on external sensor?”

“ _I have no records of the external sensors after 0300 hours._ ”

Maria’s expression is grim as they step out of the elevator an into the public lounge. “JARVIS, I want current visuals of Ms. Potts’ quarters, up on the main screens.”

JARVIS does so – curiously without any of the conversational tone that usually accompanies his comments.

Natasha gives Maria a sideways glance. “How long does the control routine work?”

“Another ten minutes,” says the other woman, studying the visuals. “You know we don’t do this without reason.”

Natasha’s mouth twitches a little at the defensiveness. “I know my loyalties, Maria.”

The images flash up on the screen, and the two women study them for a moment.

“The bed’s unmade.”

“And her watch is still on the nightstand.” Neither of which would be so if Pepper had gone out during JARVIS’ recording lapse. The watch was a gift from Stark; the only time Pepper doesn’t wear it is when she’s sleeping, or when she’s at a function that requires fancier jewellery.

Maria blows out a breath. “Shit.”

“The Weapons Directorate meeting is tomorrow.”

“Yes. And Stark Industries will be presenting.”

“They don’t need Pepper for that.”

“No, but her absence will raise questions.”

“You don’t want to be the one to tell Stark that Pepper is missing, probably kidnapped?”

Maria snorts. “I know how Stark would react; we have measures in place to handle him if it becomes needful. I’d be more worried about the reactions from Banner and Rogers.”

Natasha winces, imagining the two men plus Stark on the warpath. “You believe this can be handled quietly?”

“For a given value of ‘quietly’ that may not match the one most people use.”

\--

Pepper wakes hungry and groggy and not in her bed at the Tower.

She jerks up off the musty old mattress and stares at the dark shadows of the institution walls for a long, dizzying moment. Her mind feels blurry, her thoughts smudged, but beneath the struggle to think, panic is beating bloody fists against her sternum.

_Think. Don’t panic. Take a deep breath, let it out, and think._

It was a mantra she taught herself in her first six months as Tony’s personal assistant. Tony had a habit of turning her world upside down, although he always apologised when he made a mess to clean up, always checked that she had everything she could need or want, and could be counted upon to interrupt her work if he thought she was working herself too hard.

It took Pepper two years to realise that Tony was looking after her, too.

But Pepper did a lot of deep breathing those first few years.

She takes a deep breath, holds it, lets it out.

She went to sleep in the Tower, and woke up here - wherever ‘here’ is.

Too quiet for New York or any city - there’s almost no sound at all, but for something chirping outside - perhaps a cricket? Also too hot.

It’s not just that the room has no air-conditioning; the air itself is warm, although the room only has one small window and a shadowy vent in the ceiling. The walls are cement, and Pepper presses her back against the deep chill of it. Her pyjamas are sticky from her sweat and she feels disgusting, although that’s not much of a consideration.

Pepper eases herself off the wall and begins to feel her way through the darkened room. There’s a faint thread of light from under the door, and the moon seems to be out, so there’s a soft glow coming in through the window.

It’s not very large and not very furnished - in fact, the only piece of furniture in the room other than the mattress is a bolted-down table. Not that there’d be room to throw it - the room is barely big enough to hold the length of the mattress.

The air in the room smells a little bit musty. Like it hasn’t been used for a while.

Pepper tries the door knob – just in case - and it doesn’t turn. She thinks about rattling the door, but it’s clear she’s a prisoner and they’re not about to let her out, oops, our mistake, no harm done!

Getting down on her hands and knees, Pepper peers under the door. Clear corridor, grey lino with walls coloured a medical blue, well-lit and empty. No guard that she can see. There’s a distant sound of footsteps, but nothing close by.

So, she’s been kidnapped and held in some kind of facility where they’re not keeping a very close watch on her.

Her stomach growls and starts gnawing on her spine. Given how hungry she is, it’s been probably twelve or fourteen hours since she had something to eat – assuming that her body is giving her the right signals. Which means it’s about 7am New York time and the sun should be up.

Since it’s not…she’s somewhere west of New York. Nevada, maybe?

Wherever it is, Pepper doesn’t particularly want to stay here long.

**Author's Note:**

> The next story in the series has no connection to this one. The "Unfinished Symphonies" series of works is simply my posting a set of stories that are incomplete - that is, where I have written perhaps a couple of thousand words and never completed the story.


End file.
